"Luther Quotation": #5
"...to rescue us...according to the will of our God and Father...." (Galatians 1;4)
Luther on the will of God in justification:
"Paul arranges every word (IN THIS EPISTLE) so there is not one that does not fight against those false apostles (TEACHERS) for the truth of justification (OUR ACCEPTABILITY WITH GOD). Christ, he says, has delivered us from this wicked kingdom of the devil and the world. He has done this 'according to the will' , good pleasure, and commandment of the 'Father'. So we are not delivered by our own will or cleverness, nor by our own wisdom or planning, but because God has had mercy on us and loved us (I John 4;10). So we are not delivered because we deserve to be, but only by his grace...When you acknowledge this (SALVATION) to be the will of God through Christ, wrath ceases, fear and trembling vanish, and God no longer appears as anything other than merciful. He (THE FATHER) decided (WILLED) that his Son should die for us, so that we might live through him. This knowledge makes the heart cheerful, so that it believes steadily that God is not angry but loves us poor and wretched sinners so much that he gave his one and only Son for us." ( p.45)
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